Oh ginger my ginger

 Got a bunch of ginger from Aldi today and put it in the chatpate that I had for dinner this evening. It was then that I realized I hadn't had ginger as a condiment in a really long time.

My realization came when I bit into my food and it was shockingly confusingly so very spicy. I didn't put in anything spicy, thought of it for a moment and realized the powerful spiciness that ginger is known for. How could I forget last year's batch of kombucha when the killer-spicy kombucha -- thanks to ginger -- killed half of the people I gave it to, and the other half absolutely loved it. There's still one bottle remaining, hiding in the wine cabinet of one of our friends. Such a big fat compliment that.

Then there was this summer when I bought six seven eight pounds I forget how many of ginger and spent an entire day peeling them, my hands burned like they were on fire, almost swole because I was covered in ginger juice. The ginger syrup I made that evening hasn't been such a great success, the candies however bumper hit and went out in less than a week. Funny because I made candies hoping to cut down on the waste.

We haven't been using ginger lately because Americans don't use too much ginger, western food doesn't contain ginger generally so it's easy to forget it exists. It's hard to remember what it goes with, or have to be creative. When what you're eating doesn't have an ingredient you zone it out. Obviously it would go really well with all the curries roommate PK has been making but he forgets to get the root when he's cooking.

That I (re) discovered ginger at Aldi's is a little funny because traditionally Aldi doesn't carry the root veggie at all. I remember going to Aldi in Western Mass, multiple ones and checking out the store up and down for it, to be told by the folks there they don't carry it. When I moved here, I again hoped they carried ginger, to be told the same thing. I was resigned to the fact, always brought it up as one of the quirky thing about the grocer's. "Yeah Aldi's great but you gotta remember you can't find everything you need there. Ginger for example, isn't it insane that they don't carry ginger?! Yeah, I thought so too, it's wild. Yup must be up with something or other," I'd say and we'd all awe in the fact they didn't carry one of the most common spices in our lives.

No more good stories to tell now.

There's some other minor ginger-related info, such as, did you know that if your ginger is too 'hairy' and the hairs are tough, it means it's too old, won't taste so 'bright' and great, and you might as well throw it away. It'll still have the heat but no flavor. And my friend N was once super into ginger and ginger juicemaking, it was his project for two years. Wonder where all of that went. Oh and making powdered ginger is so easy.

And that's all I got!